A proposal has been made on a brake control device configured to avoid a secondary collision by automatically operating a brake and thereby bringing a vehicle to a halt quickly once the vehicle is involved in a collision (a primary collision) (see Patent Literature 1). The technology disclosed in Patent Literature 1, however, is designed to automatically release the braking by the automatic brake after the vehicle is brought to a halt by operating the automatic brake, so that the driver can move the vehicle at will after the vehicle is brought to a halt. For this reason, the vehicle is more likely to to move due to the inclination and the like of the road surface.
Against this background, it is conceivable that the braking is made to continue without releasing the automatic brake in order to solve the foregoing problem. In this case, however, the braking system has to continue producing high hydraulic pressure, and it is accordingly difficult to keep the vehicle stopping for a long time after the collision. Furthermore, it may be conceived to adopt a method of electrically operating the brake in order to solve the problem. If, however, the power supply is discontinued due to an impact of the collision, it is most likely that the brake cannot be kept operating.